Misconceptions as a cause of undergraduate difficulties and a diagnostic instrument

The paper proposes that what the technically literate regard as intuitive is actually the product of many years of education and controlled experimentation. The knowledge structures constructed are accessed without conscious thought. Those lacking this background, which includes the majority of entrants to engineering courses, harbour a multitude of misconceptions based on what to them is "common-sense". A second theme is that standards of maths and physics literacy have declined and that this has left gaps between the knowledge subsumed by degree courses and that actually possessed by entrants. The published evidence for both premises is critically reviewed. The Robert Gordon University is developing a noncomputative technical diagnostic test intended to detect lack of knowledge and misconceptions. The paper introduces this instrument and reports on the pilot study of its effectiveness.